Alien vs. Ninja

Unfortunately this promising title fails to deliver. When I started watching this I didn't expect so much goofy and campy humor.

Im a great fan of Keita Amemia's work, especially the ZEIRAM series and MIRAI NINJA. So when I saw the poster and the trailer for this film I expected something similar - cool Asian sci-fi action, with great atmosphere, created by the blend of genres. Aliens and ninjas - looked like this can't go wrong! But it did. There are a lot of boring dialogs. The movie's pace is messed up. Even for its 80 minutes it is still slow. It starts with a great opening shot that leaves you thirsty for adrenaline and you don't get it for the next 25 minutes. The real problem is the poor comedy attempts. The parody elements are annoying and they just ruin it all, which is a shame. It has a production value high enough to make it a modern B-classic.

It's obviously a B-movie and no one expects state of the art effects from it. Actually I prefer the practical effects - puppets, costumes and animatronics are a breath of fresh air in this CGI era.

What I like the most about it is the work of the art department. The character and creature designs are cool and the costumes are really neat. Some look like live cation versions of manga drawings. I guess that Ninja Gaiden fans would appreciate the looks of the main character.

The martial art scenes are decent, but nothing really remarkable. Directing, camera-work and acting are mediocre at best.

Alien vs Ninja is a great concept and I regret to see it wasted like that.

This is another weird, wacky Japanese genre effort in the same vein as Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and Robo-Geisha. The title says it all: a group of ancient Japanese ninja end up going claw to sword (and eventually sword to sword) with some monstrous aliens (that look suspiciously like people in moderately expensive Halloween costumes). 

There's really no more story beyond that and a hinted at love triangle between two of the male shinobi and their female counterpart. Nothing about the "aliens" is explained, they just show up and start swiping people's heads off and fiercely trying to grab boobs. Alien vs Ninja isn't as gross or ultra-violent as many similar movies can be, but it does have its moments. People get ripped in half and have little mind-controlling aliens crawl up their noses, and plenty of pink pepto bismol alien blood flows all over the place. 

AvN won't win any awards for storytelling or production values, but it's a goofy and occasionally fun way to waste some time. There are better similar movies, but genre fans should find it worthwhile.

A great little romp of Japanese cartoonish madness. If you love weirdly titled, poorly shot films, then this is for you. It has bad CGI and even worse suits/puppets. How can I possibly defend it? I enjoyed it dammit. It had action, adventure, betrayal, and never let its budget get in the way of imagination. The little alien critters were grotesquely simple, while the big alien dudes were uncomfortably phallic. The comedy mostly came from bizarre deaths, and though these were more normal than usual (for this type of movie) the sword fights were more than convincing enough. This is the kind of film that young teenagers make with their friends on a nice summer afternoon. Only difference is, that here we have grown-ups that should know better, and with that immaturity comes innocence and excitement.

I've never seen an Alien vs. Predator movie, but I can now say I've seen the (probably superior) Alien vs. Ninja.

This still isn't great, but for a movie called Alien vs. Ninja, it could've been much worse. The biggest criticism I have is that it felt a bit like it was trying to be a Ryûhei Kitamura film (what with the crazy blend of genres and goofy action scenes and all), but didn't have the same magic his stuff has. This is no Final Wars, Versus, or Azumi, even if some of its more gonzo moments suggests it kind of wants to scratch the same itch those films do.

The schlock in this film is sometimes charming though, making it better than anything the Asylum farts out. It's one-note as a movie, and all the action/alien scenes do start to feel repetitive, even with the runtime just being 80 minutes.

But it's the sort of movie that made for perfectly mindless weekend viewing, and I had a decent amount of fun with Alien vs. Ninja, flaws and all.

Again and again people are having trouble with flicks coming from Japan. They used to be extremely gory but the scene over there evolved too and got a bit away from the gore. Still, they deliver weird flicks with fast moving ninja's or other persons. In other words, you have to understand there way of living, I mean the Eastern philosophy, to appreciate such a flick. I've waited a few months to get my hand on an official release, finally it's out in our region. And it was worth the wait for me. I enjoyed it because it had a bit of humour and gore in it. Naturally you have to dig ninja to enjoy it. First of all, the alien will be a let down for so many people. It doesn't look like "alien" it's more based on Godzilla and sometimes it's CGI and sometimes it's a man in a suit. Even the ninja's look a bit weird, you have the macho type more busy with his hair, a coward too old to fight and a real ninja. Naturally there's a female ninja too and it's funny to see that the alien wanted to grap her breasts. There is so much fun in it that you can't take it seriously. But it clocks in under 90 minutes and that's good. The first 20 minutes is all about stupidity and comedy, after that the gore and red stuff appears. If you know that the director also was responsible for "Ninja" then you know what I mean. You love this one or you will hate it, there's no in-between.